Recovering from early losses, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex today ended 74 points higher at a fresh six-week high on fag-end buying by funds in bluechips, particularly RCom and Sterlite Industries.

Recovering from early losses, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex today ended 74 points higher at a fresh six-week high on fag-end buying by funds in bluechips, particularly RCom and Sterlite Industries.

The 30-share index extended gains for the fifth straight session rising by 74.66 points to close at 17,412.83 points.The barometer had opened lower and further fell to an intra-day low of 17,249.46 points due to profit booking.

Anil Ambani group company RCom rose to a four-month high after it decided to demerge its telecom infrastructure unit,Reliance Infratel, to create an independent entity. The stocks surged by 4.27 per cent to Rs 186.65.

Brokers said fresh buying mainly in realty and PSU sectors on the back of disinvestment news coupled withrecovery in european markets boosted the market sentiment.

The government today approved disinvestment of 10 per cent each in Coal India Ltd and Hindustan Copper Ltd, as itpushes its agenda to raise Rs 40,000 crore this fiscal through stake sales in PSUs.

The heaviest on the benchmark, Reliance Industries, rose by 0.19 per cent to Rs 1,065.45, Sterlite Industries by3.41 per cent to Rs 675.35 and DLF Ltd by 2.99 per cent to Rs 272.25. The three carry nearly 19 per cent weightage on the Sensex.

MMTC Ltd, a state-run trading company, by rising 20.86 per cent to Rs 34,476.60, the most since July 2002, aftersaying it will consider a proposal on June 29 to issue free shares and split its stock.